Tease to Please Ch. 01

NB: I want to thank all the Literotica authors whose work inspired me to write this story. Thanks for the ideas everyone! Special shout-outs to the imaginations of mchucha for "Chloe's Internship" and Big_Kahuna_69 for "The Peripheral Cocksucker."

I welcome comments and advice from anyone.

PS: The development of sexual tension and realistic characters occupies the initial short chapters of this story. The explicit sex that follows benefits from this, so I wouldn't skip ahead if I were you. Your patience will be rewarded! ;-)

Chapter 1: April 19, 2013

"We're doing fine," Arthur lied into the phone, "Thanks for asking."

What a whopper that was. Arthur hadn't been part of any 'we' for three years. He just couldn't bring himself to admit that to Sylvia. Label it insecurity or whatever you want. It had been fifteen years since he had last spoken with Sylvia and her voice completely unnerved him.

The truth was too humiliating to explain. Sylvia was the woman he should have married, way back when they were both in their early twenties. He had chickened-out, and Sylvia had married Dan Kozlowski instead. Predictably, their friendship died of starvation during those early years while she and Dan were busy making babies. It took Arthur many years to finally tie the knot with someone else, and once he did Sylvia stopped calling him altogether. Until today.

The truth was, ten years into Arthur's marriage his wife had left him. That unfortunate event had nothing to do with Sylvia and everything to do with an infidelity Arthur committed with a much younger woman during one of his consulting trips to Japan. It had only been a brief dalliance, but it had cost him his marriage and very nearly his career too. Everything Arthur cared for had been stripped from him in the resulting divorce. At least he and his wife had never had children, so he had been spared the agony of losing them too.

"Having an affair," Arthur wrote in his diary on the day his divorce was finalized, "is like inviting an arsonist to live under your house."

Now, out of the blue, three years into his unwelcomed 2nd bachelorhood, Sylvia was on his phone. She reported being happily married and a mother of three. In Arthur's mind she remained a never-forgotten first love. He was caught so off guard he could scarcely think of anything to say to her. He stayed quiet while Sylvia sprayed a geyser of words at him about her family's latest dynamics. To Arthur's ear, it sounded like she was expecting him to absorb the last fifteen years of her life story in a mere thirty seconds. This presumptuousness did not bother him at all.

"Elise," continued Sylvia "is our middle daughter. She's pursuing her physical therapy license. She moved back in with us here in Arizona after finishing college. But to be honest we're a bit worried about her."

"She needs work experience, and there isn't anywhere suitable near us, so..." Sylvia paused to take a deep breath. "I know it's kind of weird, Arty, but I thought you might be able to take her on for the summer... just to get something on her resume in a more serious medical field, you know? She lacks direction at the moment. She keeps talking about yoga and... and all these other hippy ideas. I think she just needs some real-world experience to give her something more practical to aspire to."

"Well, Sylvia, umm..." Arthur demurred, "I don't know if my lab is really the right place. You know, we don't do clinical work here. It's just research... biomedical research. Nothing at all to do with physical therapy."

"Oh Art," Sylvia purred before resuming her frenetic pace, "You don't need to worry about that. She's only twenty-two! And it would just be for the summer. Surely there must be some project you can stick her on that's worthwhile for your company? She's very smart you know. And I think as long as you offer her enough to break even, she'll jump at the chance to learn something new... even if it's only to get herself out from under my roof for a few months."

Ten minutes further into this conversation Arthur found himself agreeing to look at Elise's resume. As soon as he hung up, it arrived in his inbox attached to a blank email with the subject: 'Thanks Arty.'

Elise's resume contained several surprises; she claimed four years of 'Varsity Rhythmic Gymnastics' in college, a certificate in massage-therapy and, listed under her 'Extracurricular Interests,' were tantric yoga and touch-therapy.

"Hmm," Arthur chuckled to himself, "I could use a massage. She might be helpful after all."

April 20, 2013

The next day Arthur interviewed Elise via Skype. On his computer monitor she came across as smart and eager. Despite the jumpy webcam image, Arthur also noticed she was quite attractive. Perhaps not as stunning as her mother had been all those years ago, but definitely easy on the eyes; long auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail, a fair complexion and bright hazel eyes. She was wearing a dark grey blazer over a white blouse. Arthur noticed both garments looked ill-fitting and loose. "But boy," he mused to himself, "Does she ever have a charming smile."

Five hundred miles away Elise sat before her battered college laptop, trying not to slouch. She didn't care that her interview clothes were borrowed from her older sister. She only knew that she desperately wanted this job. Re-entry from college wasn't going well at home and she felt trapped under the suffocating blanket of her parents' criticism. So, she poured forth her brightest smile to the man on her screen and concentrated on saying smart things. In the previous twenty-four hours her mom had made clear that this guy, Doctor Arthur Peters, held her key to a summer of freedom in California. Elise thought he looked pudgy, boring and middle-aged; a square-faced and bearded version of what came to mind whenever she heard the word 'scientist.'

"Regardless," she mentally scolded herself between answers, "I just need this dude to hire me. He doesn't look too stuffy and he can't be THAT old; at least he still has all his hair. If only I could get him to smile, I'd know for sure. And if I get this job, I'll make some connections in the Bay Area and maybe find a way to move there permanently -- to finally get away from all this hellish negativity."

Elise tried to make her answers not only intelligent but funny too... or at least novel. But the doctor's face remained stony and tense on her screen. She had no idea whether the interview was going well or not.

Elise need not have worried. Arthur's initial goal was simply to make sure she wasn't crazy. He didn't want to babysit someone else's head case. Once he'd established that she was sane and she had affirmed some basic computing and database skills, Arthur signed off by telling her the real challenge would be getting approval from his partner. The brilliant and inscrutable Dr. Yamamoto would probably reject the entire idea outright, he told Elise: "So don't get your hopes up too high."

April 22, 2013

Two days later, Elise's cell phone rang in the middle of her pre-bedtime yoga stretches.

"This is Elise," she answered, uncurling her legs from behind her head.

"Hi Elise," Arthur started, "This is Dr. Peters."

"Oh, hi Doctor. Any good news...? I hope?"

"Well, some good, some bad I'm afraid. Do you have a few minutes?"

"Sure."

"Okay. So the good news is that my partner is willing to allow your summer internship to happen. I think once you get to know Dr. Yamamoto you'll understand how remarkable that is, actually. He's a real stickler for secrecy around here."

"Okay... Sounds good so far! What's the bad news?"

"Well, a couple things; first is the money. My research is nearly all public grant based and there's simply no capacity for me to hire you as an actual employee with benefits and all that."

"Oh."

"Dr. Yamamoto has a bit more flexibility since his budget is private, but he's a tad, uh... secretive, as I mentioned. He doesn't want anyone new having access to all his data or walking around his lab unsupervised. Only after I re-framed this whole idea a little bit for him did he agree to help bring you on board for the summer. So, long story short, we can offer you a thousand dollars per month as a stipend toward your living expenses, but Doctor Yamamoto's pre-conditions are that you need to be classified as a volunteer. That means no benefits. The second pre-condition is that you'll remain exclusively on my floor of the building except when he personally escorts you through his labs, which he's promised to do daily."

"Oh. Umm... well, that sounds okay I guess. Actually, I found out that I'll be able to stay at my friend's apartment in San Francisco for the summer. She and her fiancé just moved in together so it'll be tight, but I think if I throw them five hundred a month they'll let me crash on their sofa. I checked it out and it looks like I could commute from their place to your lab by train. I won't have a car, you see."

"Yes, you can take BART here from the City," replied Arthur. "That's pretty easy actually. There is a station about four blocks from our building. It'll be a reverse commute, so it shouldn't be too crowded. That's lucky about the apartment, money-wise, but... there is still one other pre-condition I need to tell you about."

"What's that?"

"Well, this is a bit awkward, but I'm afraid you'll need to wear a uniform."

"A uniform...? Like hospital scrubs or something?"

"No, not exactly. You see, when I was explaining this whole idea to Dr. Yamamoto, he didn't understand the word 'internship.' His English is really limited. I usually speak with him in Japanese, and my Japanese is rusty... so sometimes we have these funny miscommunications."

"Okaaay. What kind of miscommunication?"

"Yes. Umm, I didn't know the Japanese word for internship, so I told him you'd be like a hospital volunteer..."

"Uh-huh."

"...and when he Google-translated that, he somehow managed to come up with a picture of a candy striper."

"A what?"

"A candy striper. You know, um, ages ago, probably before you were born, there used to be these volunteers at hospitals. They were usually female students and they would do the rounds visiting patients and handing out stuff like newspapers and treats and cheering everyone up. They were called candy stripers because they wore these red-and-white striped dresses, like a candy cane."

"Huh... That's bizarre. So I have to, like, wear stripes?"

"Well... he has a... um, a specific outfit in mind unfortunately. You see, Dr. Yamamoto is very... very detail-oriented and um... well, let's just say he's a bit stubborn. Once he gets an idea stuck in his mind like this I'm afraid he becomes as unmovable as a mountain. And maybe because he doesn't socialize with Americans often enough, he has no sense of what's appropriate or not here in the States. His sense of gender roles, for instance, is very old-fashioned."

"So... what does the uniform look like?"

"I'm forwarding you the picture he sent me. Keep in mind he probably just chose it at random out of a screen full of Google image results. But it's become his fixation. Can you check your email and let me know if it's a deal-breaker?"

"Yeah..." Elise said. She woke up her iPad. Her curiosity was piqued. "I'll pull it up right now. Just a sec..."

A moment of silence passed in which Arthur mentally thanked his stars that he wasn't on a webcam because he could feel his face clenching with anxiety. His short beard felt prickly and hot. He clawed at it with his free hand and squeezed his eyes tight shut. He counted the seconds, waiting for Elise to open the message.

"There's no way. I mean, this is like... a... a slutty rave costume or something!" Elise immediately second-guessed her use of the word 'slutty.' She hoped it would not give Doctor Peters a bad impression of her manners. But the picture was shocking. She forced herself to calm down and then continued more slowly: "I'm not that particular about my clothes Doctor Peters, but this is, like... waaaaay too provocative. That skirt is absurd... half her butt is showing! And those heels..."

"I know it's ridiculous Elise, but Dr. Yamamoto just doesn't know any better. He's got it into his head that this is what a hospital volunteer is supposed to wear. And even though we're not a hospital, and even though I told him this picture is just a costume, he isn't listening to me. I've been trying to influence him on this for the past twenty-four hours, but he is uncorrectable." Elise double-tapped the screen on her iPad to open the photo up at full-size. "Wow," she whispered.

A long silence stretched out on the phone as they both stared at the photo. It showed a preening young model wearing a pink and white striped micro-skirt and a matching striped blouse that barely covered her enormous breasts. She had long bleached blonde hair that was tied back by a pink bow. White thigh-high stockings and towering pink platform heels completed the outrageous outfit.

"If you want some time to think it over, that's okay," Arthur offered. "I completely understand if you need to say no."

"No, no," Elise blurted, "I'm just, umm... I need to think."

"Sure. And listen, I don't know if this will make any difference but... I know Dr. Yamamoto very well. He's not creepy or anything. He's happily married and goes straight home every night. I've met his wife and they seem totally devoted to each other. He's not a... a fetishist or anything. He just lives a very ordered existence. His mind is way too orderly... OCD in fact, by American standards. So, he gets fixated on things like this. To him, this is simply how medical volunteers are supposed to attire themselves while on duty. In his mental universe it has become a sort of rule, if you will. And once a rule gets in there, I'm afraid he won't bend for anything. It's what makes him a genius and a crazy person at the same time."

"Well... I don't look anything like the girl in this picture, if that's what he's hoping for," Elise said, stalling for time. "I'm five foot three and my hair is brown. And I have, like, no boobs at all."

"It's not you, it's the uniform. That's what he cares about."

"Ugh! I hate decisions like this. What did you say about re-creating this with real clothes?"

"Yes, well: I just figured... it's not like we're going to buy this particular costume for you. Even if I could find it somewhere, it's probably made out of plastic and would fall apart in a day. I'll need your help to find real versions of all these items. I can order them for you -- I don't expect you to buy this stuff given how little we'll be paying you -- but I don't know anything about women's clothes so you'll need to send me a list. Better still would be a list with hyperlinks that I can order from."

"I see. And how far may I deviate from this picture?"

"That's a good question. Funnily enough, Dr. Yamamoto is a bit nearsighted so I think as long as you get the general look right, you know, with the basic elements in place, then I think you can vary the materials and scale... that sort of thing. I don't think he'll care as long as it looks like you are adhering to the basic formula."

"So... like, what about the stockings?"

"Yes, you'll need those."

"Uh-huh. What about the super-high heels?"

"You could get away with lower ones for sure, but umm... try to find ones with that little strap around the ankle, like the picture. He mentioned that."

"Good... 'cause that skirt in the picture is, like, for strippers. You do realize that don't you?"

"Yes, yes. I realize. Whatever you're comfortable with. I don't think he'll object too much as long as the overall impression conforms to this... model, so to speak."

"Do the stripes matter?"

"Oh yes, but as long as you've got stripes visible somewhere -- they could even be on a scarf or something -- I doubt he'll care."

"Oh yeah, a scarf!" Elise blurted sarcastically. "In the middle of summer... and it would go perfectly with the rest of this outfit! Hah! Sounds like neither of you two get out of that lab much, Doctor Peters."

"No. No we don't, I'm afraid. Keep in mind that I personally don't care what you wear, so really we're just talking about the part of the day Dr. Yamamoto chooses to take you on rounds through his labs upstairs. I can't imagine that will take more than an hour or two each day. I don't see why you'd need to wear this stuff the rest of the time. That may make all this silliness a bit more tolerable for you."

"Okay. Yeah, that might not be so bad. Um, I guess I need to hunt around online and see what I can find. I'm not saying yes yet, but I'll look and see if I can somehow make this work."

"Sure. Do your research and let me know. Another thing: there are only a handful of people working in this building, so it's not like you'll be out in public or anything."

"Well that's a plus... for sure."

"And there's no rush. We're not going to bring in someone else if you decide this isn't for you. Just call me when you've made up your mind."

"Okay, I will. And thank you, Doctor Peters. I really appreciate the offer."

"My pleasure, Elise. Speak with you soon!"

"Yes. Thanks again. Bye!"

May, 2013:

In the weeks that followed, Elise and Arthur communicated by phone and email regularly. By mid-May Elise felt she had already invested a week's worth of her free time in finding skimpy clothes online and negotiating the final selections with Doctor Peters. Each garment initially made her cringe, but in the end she convinced herself that showing off some skin for a few hours each day in a private laboratory wouldn't kill her.

The final shopping list included a half dozen miniskirts with vertical stripes, two clingy dresses (also striped), twelve tops (cropped babydoll blouses and stretchy half-shirts in various shades of white and pink) and fourteen pairs of garterless thigh-high stockings (roughly split between sheer, white and patterned with various lacework seams and ornamental top bands). Lastly, and most expensively, were two pairs of ankle-strap stiletto sandals (one pair in pearlescent white, the other in pale pink). Elise felt some degree of pride in all this work. She had managed to find relatively cheap versions of just about everything, and kept the total number of purchases down by promising to incorporate a few short dresses and tops that she already owned.

For his part, Arthur certainly didn't complain about the prices. In fact, he found the entire process dangerously fun and began to look forward to Elise's arrival with an eagerness that was difficult to conceal. During several of their webcam chats, Elise modeled her own clothes to show how they might be worked into the uniform. Arthur found himself smiling as she casually paraded across his screen in various club-wear dresses and midriff-revealing tops.

Even via Elise's cheap laptop cam Arthur could tell her physique was lithe and impressively fit. It was true that she was very small in the chest, but he didn't mind that. It was her toned stomach and slender hips that caught his attention most. And when she sent him the final shopping list, his hopes were reinforced. She listed her preferred sizes as follows;